Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh died: he was 99 years old – Corriere.it

From our correspondent
LONDON – Always one step behind: for his whole life. This was the fate of Filippo, consort of Elizabeth, died today morning – serenely, as communicated with deep sorrow by the Queen through the official Buckingham Palace account -, at the age of 99 years: companion of the Queen Elizabeth, but not his equal.

A role that the Duke of Edinburgh – that is his title – he has always interpreted with respect and dignity: but also with the freedom granted to those who did not carry the weight of the crown on their heads.

Prince of blunders, in some ways, if one remembers all his outings on and off the lines: which then were not gaffes, but rather a way of expressing the inevitable impatience for the constraints to which he was subjected. But also a modernizing prince, architect over the decades of many openings of the British monarchy.

A tormented soul, at the bottom, behind the jester’s mask that he sometimes wore, especially in his late age. Why his family had suffered: and he with it.

Nephew of the King of Greece, he had seen the Hellenic monarchy overthrown by the revolution; his mother, Princess Alice, had spent her life between mystical crises and hospitalization in a mental hospital; his sister had died in a plane crash and he had had to attend the funeral when he was just sixteen.

Gi, Filippo’s family: a little Danish and a little German, all his sisters married Germanic nobles and ended up compromising some more or less with Nazism.

But the greatest influence on him was his uncle, Louis Mountbatten, grandson of Queen Victoria and last vicer of India: who always considered him like a son, wanted him with him in England and managed to propitiate his marriage to Elizabeth, heir to the British throne and distant cousin of Philip.

With the coronation of his wife, he enters the shadow cone: and he must even renounce giving his surname, Mountbatten, to his children. But he who has the idea of ​​showing the solemn ceremony on television: thus opening the monarchy to the eyes of the subjects for the first time.

As will later be his initiative to ask the BBC to produce a documentary on the royal family, with the aim – not so successful – of appearing as normal people in some way.

Restless spirit, that of Filippo: who found an outlet in physical and sporting enterprises. As a young man he had distinguished himself in service in the Navy and then it had become a experienced pilot of airplanes. And on his impulse, the program called Duke of Edimburgh Award was born: on the basis of which, until now, legions of young British people have spent and spend weeks in the woods and in the mountains, to forge body and character.

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